Thousands of Liberal party members still without PINs needed for leadership vote

Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun02.25.2011

The Kevin Falcon campaign blew the whistle on the problem late Thursday afternoon with a press release disclosing that "thousands of rural and northern Liberals," have yet to receive the PINs necessary to identify themselves in casting a ballot by phone or over the internet Saturday. Falcon (left) is running against Christy Clark (second from left), Mike de Jong, and George Abbott (right).

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VICTORIA — Thousands of Liberal party members in rural and northern parts of the province have not received the PIN they will need to vote in Saturday’s leadership election, candidate Kevin Falcon said Thursday.

“We’re not getting a real strong sense this is something that is under control entirely at the party,” Falcon said Thursday evening.

“A day before the vote, this is a serious concern.”

Falcon worries many of the potential voters could be disenfranchised if the party does not take swift action.

Saturday’s leadership vote is being conducted by phone and over the Internet, and all members need an individualized personal identification number before they can log into the system and cast a ballot.

The company conducting the vote — Nova Scotia-based Intelivote Systems Inc. — has been mailing PINs to the estimated 90,000 eligible party members in B.C. The company has set up a helpline to provide people with a substitute PIN if theirs does not arrive in the mail — a fix that was supposed to deal with problems such as the one now apparently faced by thousands of party members.

But on Thursday, the helpline was often busy, meaning many people could not get through, Falcon said. People were also not able to leave a message on the line because the voice mailbox was full.

The helpline is staffed during the week between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., and will be open on Saturday during voting from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On Thursday, Falcon issued a call to the party to immediately ensure staffing on the helpline is increased.

“We can live with the fact that people don’t get their PINs, we just want to make sure that when they phone the party to get an alternate PIN there will be someone answering the phone and dealing with it,” he said.

“We’re trying to constructively say, ‘We have to have some kind of plan B here to make sure we don’t disenfranchise potentially hundreds of people, maybe thousands across the province’,” he added.

“The solution has to be that they have to really beef up their phones.”

Falcon said the response his campaign had received from the party as of Thursday was: “Don’t worry. Everyone will have their PINs.”

He said this has only added to his concern.

Liberal party spokeswoman Lilian Kim said she did not know how many people are staffing the helpline, nor could she say if the party has plans to have the number of operators increased.

Kim added she was aware of the issue, but said many PINs may still show up in the mail today.

“We’re taking this seriously,” she said. “We want to make sure that eligible members receive their PINs so they can vote on Saturday.”

Pat Pimm, Liberal MLA for Peace River North and Falcon supporter, said many people in his riding had not received their PINs as of Thursday.

He added that he called his local Canada Post sorting centre and was told there are only a few envelopes with PIN set to go out this morning. Pimm said that means that before Liberals go to the polls on Saturday only a few more PINs will be delivered to members in Fort Nelson, Fort St. John and several other communities in the region.

“It’s not going to be good. I have a feeling we’re going to have an awful lot of people who are not going to receive their PINs,” he said.

“We’ve worked so hard to make this an equal process around the province,” he added.

“It’s just a sad fact of life that when mail comes from back east and it gets to Vancouver, you’re looking at two or three more days to get to rural BC. This often gets forgotten.”

Pimm said he was unable to get through to the voter helpline several times Thursday, and is worried what will happen if staffing is not increased.

“If I’ve got 1,000 people trying to get through to a helpline, I don’t know how many people they have manning it but it’s going to be a bit of an issue,” he said.

“It’s not looking real positive.”

Late Thursday night, Intelivote president Dean Smith said his company is working to fix the issue.

Smith said 53,000 of the PINs were sent from the printers in Ottawa last Wednesday. He said 2,000 were sent by UPS, and the remainder of the estimated 90,000 were shipped from Ottawa last Thursday morning.

"I’m really at a loss to figure out, from a timing point of view, why this stuff isn’t being delivered," Smith said in a phone interview from Liberal party headquarters.

"I just have no explanation as to why something that would have, at the latest, got into the province and through sorting on Tuesday, is not in somebody’s hands," he added.

Smith also confirmed there were problems with the help line on Thursday.

He said his company is working to ensure the calls are routed to a larger call centre on Friday and Saturday so everyone can get through.

He said that if necessary, his company will establish a second toll-free number.

"People that call [today]from probably noon on, we’ll be able to take a more significant load," he said.

When asked how confident he is everyone will get a PIN before the vote, Smith responded: "My confidence level is getting better. I fully expect a lot of people will see it in the mail [today]."

Also on Thursday, Kevin Krueger, Minister of Social Development and BC Liberal MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson, threw his support behind George Abbott's leadership bid.

Abbott "is head and shoulders the best Premier candidate for our time," Krueger said in a news release. " His lifelong experience with rural and small-community issues and intimate familiarity with British Columbia’s resource-rich, yet thinly-populated interior, and his highly-respected, friendly status with First Nations will serve British Columbians well."

Krueger becomes the 21st MLA or minister to support Abbott as leader and premier of B.C.

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